BEIRUT -- Lebanon says contacts are underway between Beirut and "friendly countries" to ease tensions with Israel over the Jewish state's plans to build a cement wall on the border.

Minister of Social Affairs Pierre Abi Assi told reporters after a Cabinet meeting Thursday that top Lebanese officials are in contact with the United Nations and some nations that he did not name to ease the tension.

Lebanon has been protesting a controversial wall that Israel is planning to build along their shared border, which Lebanon says would encroach on its territory.

On Thursday, construction workers on the Israeli side were seen setting up the wall.

President Michel Aoun tweeted earlier that the contacts aim to prevent Israel's "greed" in Lebanon's land and water adding that Beirut will face any Israeli attack.